Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (18th January)

Hey everyone.

This week I finished The Last Faith.
Got all 3 endings and completed it 100%, took me 65+ hours but I enjoyed every minute of it. Highly recommended.

Also finished Voidwrought, thoroughly enjoyed it. Took me 20 hours and I highly recommend it.

Near the end of Rebel Transmute, finally making some real progress and it plays so much better once you gain more abilities.

Also started Halloween and Ash Vs Evil Dead, love the 16bit slash fest, good fun.

Have a great weekend everyone.

I just reached the Gerudo Temple in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.

I scored perfects in two full nights of Melatonin and I'm going to keep on trying the remaining mini-games and mixes for the same.

I will participate in the community event in Tetris Effect Connected.

And I also plan to start playing Schim this weekend.

Happy gaming & a great weekend to you all✌🏻🧡🎮

I’ve been in an Everhood mood thanks to the sequel coming out in March.

I just gave up on Fantasian right before the end (the Dimengeon was great at first, but now it's become excruciatingly repetitive and I refuse to grind for 20 more hours)

So now it's Ys: Oath in Felghana for me, which is also grindy but way more diverse.

Switch 2, Mario Kart 9, Metroid 4, Mario Odyssey 2 and RDR 2.
Dam Tardis playing up again. 😊

Still playing the Witcher! Finished the base game a couple of days ago (holy cow almost 100 hours) and starting today blood and wine dlc. As my backlog in switch is pretty low I'm tempted to focus on Steam games until switch 2 is released so I have a couple of games for it. Happy gaming everyone!

@Zuljaras What ... only 224 physical games 😍😍😍 Is that The Office playing in the backgroung? Cheers!!

I've paused just before the fourth boss in Returnal on PS5. I'm only playing when I'm in the right headspace to tackle something intense, so it's taking me a while, but I've figured out how to progress fairly consistently after really struggling with the first two biomes. We'll see how things go with the boss today or tomorrow. It's a little less fun now that I'm being really cautious, but I'm still enjoying it.

I'd love a mode after completing the whole game where I can choose whatever weapons and perks I want and just have fun since the movement is so satisfying. I suppose I won't have the fear of failure then, so maybe leaping in and messing around will be more achievable even without a special mode.

Well I beat the post post game of Ring Fit Adventure and now I feel like I can step back from it. I haven’t felt inspired to play anything else lately so I think I’m going to take a break from gaming and do more reading and weight-based training.
RIP David Lynch
What a f***ed year this has been.

The other day I beat the final boss of Fantasian Neo Dimension!
I was playing in Hard mode because I heard that this was the original difficulty level of the 2021 release before the updated version added an easier mode and called it "Normal".

And I'll just say..... the Hard mode in this game is really hard! That final boss was ridiculous. He frequently spews out party-wide instakill attacks that can only be survived if you apply an attack debuff to the boss, have your highest-defense guys equipped with defense-boosting gems, apply defense+ buffs to them, AND also have them use the "guard" skill on the turn before the attack. And then when you've just finished spending turns healing up from that nightmare, it's already time for the boss's next partywide instakill. And it just goes on and on until you manage to find enough hits in between healing to whittle him down. it's roughhhhhh.

But just before the final boss room, there's a treasure chest with a medal in it, and if you offer the medal up to a shrine in a previous area, you get to "go back in time", which is essentially doing a New Game Plus. ... It's interesting how you don't actually need to beat the final boss in order to start New Game Plus.
So even though I beat the game, I'm playing a New Game Plus playthrough because it seems to be the only way to get high level enough to challenge the "Void Realm" bonus boss challenge, which I am interested in completing just to see what happens at the end.

So for the moment I'm doing a quick runback of Fantasian's main story so I can get back to the New Game Plus added goodies.

It's a good game I recommend highly to classic JRPG fans! It's a really really good one!

This week I will be mostly playing

Street Fighter Alpha

Street Fighter 6. Hope it comes to Switch 2 and also Killer Instinct with crossplay for both. Always good for fighting games to expand the online userbase.

Donkey kong. It’s fun

Unicorn Overlord
Started today. Already liking it. "Frederick" of this game feels even stronger than they do in Fire Emblem. Speaking of FE, I found it funny that they have a support system but it's called rapport instead.

Just Shapes & Beats
I think I bought this game at launch but only ended up playing the first couple of stages with my sister. I'm about to finish the story, I think. Simple but fun game.

Iconoclasts
Current game trial. I've only played the first hour so I don't have much to say.

Ys: Book I & II
Wii VC. Played through Book I years ago and recently started Book II on a whim. Plays and sounds like I remembered.

This weekend I'll be carrying on with A Short Hike, FE: Engage, and having finished Donkey Kong Country and Paper Mario 64 on NSO I'll be starting another NSO game to alternate with, although I'm not sure what one to start so any recommendations on NSO would be appreciated 🤘🏻 Happy gaming folks

My gaming session will start with Mario Kart: Double Dash. It is one of those games, that does not get old. I am starting to feel the hype for the new Mario Kart. Afterwards I will continue with Granblue Fantasy: Relink.

Happy gaming everyone!

Finished 1000xRESIST in the week and now I don't want to play anything story-based for a good while. That story is going to stay with me for a long time. I'm not surprised it's just been nominated for a bunch of awards - it's deserving of every one of them.

Splatoon 3 and F-Zero 99 it is then...

The same games I’ve been playing for a while now. Mario Party Jamboree, Castlevania DS Collection, and Pokemon Scarlet. Might throw in Mario Kart 8.

Wanted to play some DKC but didn't want to get the recent remaster. So instead I started playing some Tropical Freeze. Excellent game.

Right now, I have the Nintendo bug pretty bad and the Switch 2 reveal has totally pulled me back into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Alongside that, I’m also playing the odd match in the surprisingly super fun Mario Strikers Battle League. My PS5, on the other hand, isn’t getting so much as a look, especially as my DualSense has the worst drift ever! Way worse than any of my JoyCon ever have.

I decided to 100% Balatro and am paying for it with all my gaming time. At about 75% and still have a ways to go, but I'm getting my money's worth on that damn game lol

In Ace Attorney Investigations playing the 5th case. In case I finish this weekend, will start the 2nd game. Messing around with my backlog to find a secondary game, probably it will be Advance Wars 2 from the Reboot Camp. Played it on GBA, but never finished.

Waiting on some games in the mail so started a new playthrough of Tactics Ogre in the meantime. Also made it deep into Golfinite, there's a pretty big difficulty spike by the 4th tourney so I'm curious if I'll throw in the towel or barrel through it. Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm putting the finishing touches on my 40-level Super Mario World sequel in Mario Maker 2. I'm hoping to finish today. I'll update this post later with the course ID for those who are interested in playing. I thought this project could take a month or two, but I got obsessively addicted to making levels and have probably put in an average of 10 hours a day editing over the past week. I, uh... I'm not employed right now, so I have a lot of time on my hands.

EDIT: Okay, I have it uploaded! My Maker ID is LT6-LN9-5PG, if anybody wants to play my 8 worlds! I had a lot of fun making it, so I hope everyone has as much fun playing it! There are three large coins hidden in every level, a 10-coin, a 30-coin, and 50-coin in that order; good luck trying to find them all!

I also picked up DKC Returns HD on launch day but haven't played it yet. I'm hoping to record myself playing through the first world of the game today and upload it to my YouTube channel. I also still need to finish my Link's Awakening playthrough.

After this week's bombshell, I've decided to go for some Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as well as some DKC Returns (Wii) and Final Fantasy X!

Mario and Rabbits: Donkey Kong Adventure. The DKCR release reminded me that I had this on the backlog. Played the main campaign years ago, but never got around to this DLC.

Also playing Super Mario Galaxy for the first time. Another backlog item. Looks great on the OLED. At first, I felt it was a significant step back from SMG2, but the levels get better as you progress.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Blade Chimera

Mostly playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, where I'm now getting the Triforce to fight Demise, and Donkey Kong Country Returns HD where I'm finishing world 3. I'm also starting Metroid Prime Remastered, and I do daily puzzles in Stitch.. Coincidentally, they're almost all remasters.

Trying to finish The Lake House DLC for Alan Wake 2. It’s the last piece of the Remedyverse I have to complete. I’ve done it all recently, AW, QB, CTRL, AW AN, AW DLC, AW2 and its DLC.

@KoopaTheGamer Same here. Top 5 platformer

@JS_Comics Have you already played Caveman Ninja and Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics? Both SNES, same genre as DKC. I had fun playing them again on NSO.

Blade Chimera. Not a 9/10 in my book. Decent, but not excellent, not so far anyway. Thankfully bought via the Mexican eshop so not too stung, but that reviewer's in my naughty book now

I'll finish Echoes of Wisdom for the second time (hero mode, with 100% completion) and then play Dragon Quest V mobile.

I finally got Kirby and the Forgotten Land the other week so I'm slowly playing through that when I'm not working

I'll be trying to finish up Antonblast if possible. I've just got a couple stages and bosses left. I just hope there are no frustrating difficulty spikes sitting at the finish line. I've also been playing some runs of Neon Abyss. It's funny because when I first played the demo, I hated it. Gave it another try down the road and it just clicked, so I got it on sale. It's a fun little roguelite for $5, and plays well in bite-sized chunks.

I’ve finally finished the DQ3 remake , and am ready for something lighter before starting Y’s X, so maybe just a little Mario or Sonic this weekend, and reading Stormlight. I’ll jump in to Y’s or Tunic next weekend.

im gonna be playing more cyberpunk 2077!

Turns out that I am FAR, far worse at the Metal Slugs than I remember being way back when you could find an AES NeoGeo coin-op. Can’t get a single clip in worth half a damn.

Might have to try Tekken 3 on OpenEmu if I’m going to get these recordings in. Bit of Lei, bit of Eddy, couple of flashy moves, that should do it.

Gonna try and finish both The Great Ace Detective Chronicles and Hogwarts Legacy.

I’ve started playing Disco Elysium which I bought a while back. Very different to pretty much anything I’ve played before. Very strong on the world building and general degeneracy, liking it. I feel like I need to try and play it frequently until it’s done so I don’t forget the characters and story. Shame it keeps crashing though, very frustrating.

Other than that I might play a bit of NSO megadrive - sonic 2 and castlevania

We’ve all got a cold this week so yesterday I mostly revisited the samurai Jack series on the couch. I’ve played the first few levels in DKC returns. This game i haven’t played since the Wii days so it’s all new to me again. In’ having a real swinging time with it. I’m also planning to peck away at shin chan summer vacation yada yada. I like it quirkiness sometimes, I really don’t get the humor in this game at all but it’s weird and I like that.

This weekend, I'll probably be playing Pac-Man Museum+. I love playing the original Pac-Man in the winter time so mostly that, but perhaps picking around a bit with the other games as well. It's really a great little retro collection and possibly my favorite one on the Switch.

Had a round of Super Mario Party Jamboree yesterday. Today and tomorrow focus is to finish The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD (at the Sandship dungeon now) and continue on Octopath Traveler 1 (finished all eight characters 2nd chapters) and New Pokémon Snap (only played about 3 hours)

I work graves at an outdoor pallet home camp (we have upgraded from tents), and it snowing like crazy in Denver, so my weekend is going to be trying to keep people safe and warm in the snow...including a whoooooole lot of shoveling. I'm due for the exercise. Anyway, that means I'm using some thc and hitting the bed between work, and that's it.
When Monday hits, I'll be all over Cyberpunk and FFXII. XII has clicked hard, and I'm so glad. What an incredible atmosphere and soundtrack. Loving it. The last one I truly loved was IX, so it feels great to sink into an FF again.
In Cyberpunk all you need to know is that I'm changing my last name to Alvarez.

I'm mostly playing Tears of the Kingdom at 240fps like usual. Lossless Scaling continues to be one of my favorite things in the whole history of videogames (and video watching, it is awesome for youtube, tv shows, and movies). UFO 50 is really fun to play with a high frame rate multiplier going. Star Waspir can look very trippy, Party House looks awesome with the people morphing into each other as I add more to the house, etc etc. I've also enjoyed Lossless Scaling with Zangeki Warp. Xelan Force is another one that looks nice boosted to 240fps. I've also been playing Rocket League, DKC Returns (I liked the Digital Foundry video covering the new release, but have just been enjoying the old version), Cavity Busters, Lunacid, The Rangers in The South (looks good on Deck, but using LS I can get an almost perfect 240fps), and Angel at Dusk. Oh, and I've been loving playing Wipeout Phantom edition with Beach House, Wednesday Campanella (Tapir and Utah work really well!), and Tame Impala added to the soundtrack.
I watched the retro game corps, wulfden, and whatever the Linus Tech Tips news thing is called to see impressions of the Switch 2 announcement. The Canadians at LTT always seem to have the funniest take. I loved how they reported that Nintendo said emulation is legal, then informed Nintendo they can't sue anyone anymore since they said emu is legal!
Happy gaming!
Edit: also really enjoying demos of Kero Quest 64 and Motor Town. Might have to pick both of them up!

@Zuljaras holy tomato BISQUE!!! That’s a lot of switch! This begs the question, what else have you got in your archives. Also im curious how the Witcher 3 set with you? Sometime ago you were playing it for the first time, so what did you think? It’s one of the few games I’ve been able to put so many hours into it for the story despite not loving the gameplay. I cannot get into games like dark souls or monster hunter for the combat, it’s just very clunky to me rolling around and timing those perfect parries and such. Witcher tho hooked me and I had to learn it to advance. I would think it was all the things you would like tho. Also were you lucky enough to snag the soul reaver collection they had physically on limited run? It sold out before I could get one but it’s on their distro so I’m hoping other retailers will have it.

Probably finish Donkey Kong Country Returns tomorrow, few balls up in the air of what I might focus on after it. Wondering about either another run of AI: The Somnium Files, finally really focusing on Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, or replaying one version or the other of Super Mario RPG.

On Nintendo Switch

• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Battle Mode against my Wife (290 hours played)
• Super Mario 3D World + Bowser´s Fury: World 4 (10 hours played)
• Ori and the Blind Forest (a think I´ll finish this game today) (10 hours played)

On Steam:

• Street Fighter 6: Mai Shiranui!!!!! (750 hours played)

2 people are playing MK9 😂😂

I finished rebirth this week…I feel empty inside..I loved it….i loved it so much…

I’m going to start stick of truth this week though! (And I recently started stellar blade earlier this week)

The sims 4, and kirby the amazing mirror[which I did not like].

The main game I’ll be playing is Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League on my PS5. With that said, I did play some of Vectorman earlier in the day as well. I might throw in some Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, as I’m still hyped AF about the Switch 2 first look trailer.

I'm playing Sonic X Shadow Generations, the Sonic part at the moment and really enjoying it.

Also some Ring Fit Adventure for a workout.

Happy gaming everyone

@Zuljaras That's a nice collection of physical Switch games you have there

I did not realize just how crazy my backlog has gotten. So now currently Im dedicating a hour a day to every game I own until then. I've got over 27+ games to complete. And even more coming. I went overboard with the holiday game deals.

got 99,999 coins in mk8dx hrs before the switch 2 reveal. last few days I cant put down dodonpachi daioujou on switch.

"Wait, we have to play the Switch 1..?!"

We even have to abbreviate it to NS1 now!😈 Nah, just kidding, that still has a few prerequisites left like a SotN port and a Xenogears remake.

But you guessed it, my Switch library won't play itself. This weekend, in the potential capacity of Xenoblades and Rune Factories, Personas and Casltevanias, Danganronpa and Great Ace Attorney, Theathrythm and Minstrel Song, Borderlands 2 and Ender Lilies, Ys Origin and Dungeon Munchies... plus more stuff outside the hybrid territory from RE3R, NFS2015 or Wolfenstein New Order on PS4, SotN, Gran Turismo or God Eater on Vita and Fantasy Life, Endless Frontier or Luigi's Mansion on 3DS to Nioh, Mass Effect or FFXIII on Deck... and a likely Tales cocktail from across the board (Eternia/Innocence/Zestiria/Arise) in celebration of the new Switch release my wallet is currently calibrating cross-hairs for. In fact, since taking it for a welcome ride would demand more temporary shelvings anyway, so perhaps I'll face that first world ordeal in advance and use the space to spend a few days making more progress in Symphonia until then.

@Zuljaras DUSK gets so incredibly good. Great campaign.

Had a very busy week so didn't get to game much.
No Man's Sky, can't get enough of the exploration.

For this weekend these are what I'm currently enjoying.

• Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana Remastered for Nintendo Switch
• Tales of Monsterland DX for Modretro Chromatic
• The King of Fighters XIII for Steam Deck
• Popful Mail for Super NES via Analogue Super Nt
• Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero for PS5

Playing through DKC Returns HD, already near the end of the game but will probably attempt to get all the puzzle pieces.

Eiyuden Chronicles: One Hundred Heroes finally broke me this week. I was excited to play it, and believe on different hardware that it is a winner. However the problems that plague many switch ports finally became more than I was willing to put up with - there are load times on the pause menu, and before each random battle!

Thankfully another game with similar art has really been exciting me! Star Ocean: Second Story remake has been incredible! I hope to play a good deal of that this weekend!

Switch: Mario & Luigi Brothership, Splatoon 3 and MK8 DX (the Switch 2 reveal trailer gave me the motivation to go through mirror mode and 200cc for it, which I never did on vanilla 8).

XSX: Witcher 3 and Crash Team Racing. I guess it's a kart racer weekend, for me.

I’m mostly gonna be playing Elden Ring over on my Series X this weekend. I started it a few days back and even though I have no clue what I’m even doing, I am positively hooked. I’m also still chipping away at 100% completing Sonic X Shadow Generations, I’ve been having too much fun with it and I feel that I’m slowly but surely gaining a Sonic hyperfixation.
On Switch, I wanna finish up Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble. I’m about halfway through the campaign and I feel it’ll be a quick and easy one to wrap up. I also wanna get to playing Super Paper Mario over on my Wii U. I’ve been itching to play it since finishing TTYD last year, so I should probably get to that. I also got a bunch of games for my birthday on Monday that I don’t really have the time to dive into right now, so I’ll stick those on the backlog for now.

Excitebots: Trick Racing is my current game.

It’s a rainy Saturday and both kids are nursing colds so it should be a low-key weekend with time to play some Switch Uno games before The Deuce arrives this summer. The little teaser video we got was completely spoiled by leaks, but it’s nice finally to get official word and boy oh boy are we set up for a doozy of a Direct on the morning of April 2.

I took down the Tyrant in Astral Ascent last weekend, and have incentive now to keep beating the game repeatedly Hades-style, but I may just main something else now. I just picked up DKC Returns HD last night, so the backlog ain’t getting any shorter!

Mostly, I need to free up time to play my physical deluxe edition of UFO 50 when it comes to Switch this spring. Yes, I am willing it into existence.

Wishing everyone time and leisure enough to enjoy some of your fave games this weekend! 🕹👾

I was going to start up Hollow Knight again but I'm no longer motivated. Will probably do Metroid Dread instead

Remake. Rebirth. & now I can finally say I finished the OG. The big kahuna. A classic that changed the entire gaming industry upon release in 97. I finally wrapped credits on Cloud & Sephiroths epic story Final Fantasy VII. & it was every bit as magnificent as everyone says! The characters. The writing. The gang. I want to step right back into this world. & I did! Currently watching Advent Children as I type this out. I cannot get enough of this tale & can’t wait to see what Square decides to do with the third part of this epic tale

Dusting off the X68000.

@X68000 Looks fun! I'm hoping to pick up a Super Famicom version of TwinBee soon.

I'm still playing Final Fantasy IV (Hard Type - Super Famicom) and just got to the save point before the last boss.

My kids and I played rounds of Mario Kart 8: Deluxe, Super Bomberman R, and Mario Party Superstars last night. They're also playing Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure again.

I'm waiting for the Lunar Remastered Collection physical version to be up for pre-order. Loved Lunar 2 on the PS1!

I'm still pushing toward Completionist++ on Balatro. I'm more than 80 percent of the way there. But with the three-day weekend, I may use some of the extra free time to get a new game going on the side.

I’m sorry, who is already playing Mario Kart 9? At the time of this comment 2 people are.

Spent a good couple of hours playing through Magical Pop'n last night. It's a great little platformer. It's as rare as Rendering Ranger, but for me, a better game.

Gonna knock out a little more of Brothership and plunge ever closer to 100%ing Sonic Generations despite some of the side missions kicking my tail.

This 3-day weekend for me I'll be playing:
world of tanks- both xbox and switch games.
fortnite- I bought the new hatsune miku skin because I just could not resist.
Destiny- us per the usual

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Path of Exile 2. I also need to finish up metaphore

@Yalloo I've never played Caveman Ninja and the last time I played Joe & Mac was briefly when I was a kid haha, thanks for the recommendations I'll be sure to check them out this weekend 👊🏻

Trundling through Crypt Custodian which is fun, kind of cosy, a bit sad, and a bit more challenging than the devs' other games. For some reason have also decided to earnestly grind through Dicey Dungeons stage by stage, and on top of that I have to admit, a fair old bit of Balatro, which is fun and addictive enough as an idle distraction type deal but hasn't completely won me over without really being able to say why.

Spirit Tracks, as soon as it gets here. Been working on the Mario RPG remake, DK94, and Galaxy 2 in the meantime.

Working today, but when I'm not been playing some Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged. Picked up in the recent sale on Switch and it's a fun racer. Also finished Portal and working through Portal 2 which is excellent.

Retro picks for this week, bought a copy of Land of Illusion for the Master System which I'd never played before and it's a great little platformer. Also bought Moonwalker for the Mega Drive which is another game I've never got around to.

Still playing through Paper Mario: TTYD for the first time. I have 5 of the 7 stars now.

Also thinking about what to pull of the backlog once I finish this one. Maybe 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim or Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I’ve never played any games like either of these before. I think XC3 will take me on the order of 100 hours (probably taking most of my gaming time over 3 months or more) so I have to make sure I am ready for that if I decide to play it.

We figured out what was making my brother's brand new computer build reject Windblown, so we got a couple runs in last night. Exciting!
I started up Lapucelle Tactics this week on the switch NIS collection game, and it's as good if not better than I remember it from circa 20 years ago.
That's held true for Phantom Brave, too, which my brother started this week for a little side-by-side NISJ classics. He also tried out the demo for Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero, for which he has mixed feelings. The changes are especially pronounced since he's playing the first one right now.
We've got plans to play our favorite Rise of Nations with the cousins today, and maybe even a round of Conan Unconquered on the PC front.

On the reading front, I'm working through Erikson's Deadhouse Gates and, to decide whether or not to keep buying these Orient (manga) volumes, I've started in on that. Iirc it's by the Magi mangaka, so I've got decently high hopes.

It's a long weekend for some of us in NA, so only time will tell what else gets a chance in the sun.

I will be focusing on Splatoon 3 (pool name: lol666 ), ACNH, and Minecraft with my friends.

I prefer to focus on just one or two games at a time, but there's just so much going on that I need to juggle quite a few.

Donkey Kong Country Returns of course. The 3DS port was the last time I played this, and my impression of the revisit is that man this ain't no Tropical Freeze.

Tales of Graces is among my favourite Tales games, fighting with Abyss for number one, so I'm pretty pumped to play through it again for the first time in many many years. It's still great!

Pokémon Violet to shiny hunt the Flamigo outbreak event.

And I'm just wrapping up a game on the PS5, which I won't get into here on the Nintendo site.

Back at Ocarina of Time 3D.

A New Years Resolution. LOL.

Started the Empire of the Rising sun campaign on C&C Red Alert 3. But i’m starting with Metroid Prime 1 this weekend. Never played the series and MP4 comes out in a few months.

I just beat Unicorn Overlord and man, that game went straight into my favorites list. Very unorthodox strategy battle system that ended up being a lot of fun. Very beautiful presentation and good story. Wasn't expecting the plot twist with Galerius and their identity at the end. Perfect game.

Kinda taking a small gaming break to be with family. UI kinda took hold of me there for a bit. 😅

I've been playing animal well this morning. It's been so good. I got all 4 flames today and went down to the last area. I have been thoroughly spooked. What is down there is so creepy and scary. But the immense feeling of power when I got the lantern was immaculate. Probably my favorite game of 2024! I might even beat the game this weekend.

Hoping to find a physical copy of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD this weekend…

@cosmograph Congrats on beating the game! And congrats on beating it again and again 😅
I remember I was disappointed the third time as I had gotten used to starting over and I imagined it would be endless...
That actually pushed me to move to the custom mode, which is more to-the-point.
Have fun with reading and weight training!

Was intending to play more Yakuza Kiwami last weekend but life got in the way. So I will make a valiant effort to get back into it this weekend!

On switch just DQIII hd2d. On xbox wwe 2k24 and visions of mana.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Students almost ready to graduate. Gotta keep pushing.

Currently finishing up Donkey Kong Country Returns HD. It's the first time I've played it since the 3DS version, which I last played over a decade ago. I remember that so vividly...I'm getting old. Its a good game, though I don't know if I'd say it's as good as the original trilogy. I'm not sure what it is, there's just a charm to those games that doesn't really translate to the newer entries as much for me. Still though, it is a good game, just not $60 good imo. Once I'm done with DK, I'm considering finally dipping my toes into the Final Fantasy series for the first time. There's been a lot of rumors about the Final Fantasy VII remakes/reboot coming to Switch 2, and I've never even played the original yet. Despite getting it (and Crisis Core) on sale a while back. I've had OG FFVII spoiled pretty thoroughly, but I can't really feel too bitter. That's just what happens when you hold out on playing what's become one of the most treasured games of all time. Then again, I also had Persona 5 spoiled for me as well, and I adored my time with that game. Not to mention that I know the remake goes in a whole new direction as well. In any case, I think it's high-time I finally consider playing the RPG. I'll also get to Tropical Freeze at some point to cap off my little marathon of the DK Country series, but after a teeny little break. Honestly, these are just ideas, I guess my "game" this weekend is just figuring out what to play next. Works for me, my schedule is booked this week anyway. Should give me time to really think it through.

This weekend I am playing Star Wars Fallen Order, and the Forest.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD and I’m having a blast. Onto world 3 and I’m surprised how much more demanding it is compared to Tropical Freeze… and that is for the better.

@FishyS Thank you! I really liked the director David Lynch and I just feel sad he passed. For me personally things are going really well I just meant that it feels like it’s been nothing but bad news (in the news). Yes!!! It will be exciting to see what kind of fitness games they come up with for Switch 2. I just hope it’s on par with the quality or beyond of Ring Fit.
@Yalloo Hahaha Thank you! Totally. I wouldn’t mind at all if it looped infinitely! Hmm I might take a look at custom mode. I will absolutely miss some of those exercises, like leg lifts for instance, that I feel zero motivation to do outside of that game.
Thank you for the supportive words and for all your sharing about your Ring Fit experiences! I don’t think I’ve ever played a game so diligently through the years.

I continue with indiana jones and great circle this weekend

Finishing up Resident Evil 2 before I jump back into Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I've dedicated myself to unlocking all the extra modes in the 1998 RE2, which means I have another full playthrough on my hands to unlock the Tofu Survivor, but I decided to take a break from it and play the remake.

Comparing the original to the remake (that was the point of me playing them now after all), the remake suffers with a heavily disjointed story and a completely different atmosphere that I find inferior to the original. But the new combat system offers a very different experience that's excellent in its own right. Resource management and choosing which enemies to put down is MUCH more prevalent in RE2R, alongside a greatly improved threat with Mr. X. It does a good job capturing the spirit of the original despite failing in other areas. Which (like I mentioned in the last weekend post) is a far cry from the Silent Hill 2 Remake, which I think is inferior to its source material in every way.
So uh... Resident Evil 2 (original & remake) is a big recommend lol, if you've somehow not already played it.

Well after the switch 2 trailer reveal just dropped, I got to work harder to get my backlog done and pick up a few games before it arrives but in the meantime I am still playing:

Reynatis - in the middle of chapter 16 now. Performance and graphics still bad 😂

Zelda echoes of wisdom - on my way to the fourth dungeon now I think which is eldin. Game has opened up more and it’s not bad. Not my favorite 2d Zelda but it good so far. Too much like totk though is what drags it down for me.

Fantasian neo dimension - I am trying to escape this jail for now lol. I heard I am in still in the part 1 of this game.

Maybe play a little super Mario party jamboree.

Got to get back to playing choas head Noah. 😂

On the 3ds I am playing bravely default still. Long flipping game. Still not liking it. I am on chapter 4 now though at least. Hopefully it picks up

This weekend will be mostly a cleaning weekend at home, so to relax I'll probably play some Wario Land II (3DS Virtual Console version) or some casual Smash Bros. Ultimate, it's been a while I since I last played.

I'd go to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to finish 200cc, but that has been mostly stress-inducing for me.

All I know is, I'm Not playing Mario Kart 9. I need more. MORE.😠(😁)

Spirit Hunters: Infinite Horde. Fun little Vampire Survivors clone that I've put quite a few hours into now.

In what I assume are the waning hours of Trails of Cold Steel IV, working on absurdly gearing the party up and about to start the ??? sidequest. It's been a journey, one with a lot of fishing.

Also doing some Super Mario Brothers Wonder and rounds of Vampire Survivors with the kids.

I'm still playing Ace Attorney Investigations Collection, I'm close to finishing the third case of the first game. So far, the case is fairly boring, but hopefully it'll get better. I'm also playing Ys VIII Lacrimosa of Dana, on Steam, and I just reached the first dungeon and started exploring it. Last of all, I'm still playing Fire Emblem Heroes, where I'm going through some paralogues on higher difficulties and also tactics drills.

Finished FF VI PR on Friday. I played the original on SNES when it first came out and absolutely loved it. Even with QOL upgrades, the game doesn’t hold up like I had hoped it would. Other old school RPGs still shine, like Lunar and Secret of Mana, but FF VI just didn’t as much; oh, well. It was still enjoyable, mostly for the soundtrack.

Next up will probably be Star Ocean Second Story R. Never played a SO game before, but this one got a lot of positive reviews, so I’m optimistic.

I'm playing Astrobot. It's the most unadulterated fun I've had since Mario Wonder. I mean a smile from ear to ear. This game embodies joy.

@JS_Comics On the N64 you should give Winback Covert Operations a try. I missed it back in the era because I'm sure I was still all over GoldenEye. Winback is pretty good and I believe it was revolutionary at the time due to the cover system. Obviously it's got plenty of that ol' N64 era jank but I had a good time with it. Be sure though to be as generous with the "save state" feature as possible because the normal saves in the game are few and FAR between. If you die it's back to the beginning of those long levels!

Also, I recommend Blast Corps (N64). A total classic from that era. I must have rented it dozens of times but could never beat it. There's some difficulty spikes and having no quick online/You Tube search on tips I just gave up as a kid. I got a crazy feeling finally beating it over 20 years later on my Switch

@Jimmy_G_Buckets LOL you should get some pointers from @Burning_Spear. When it comes to Balatro that dude is literally the defining the phrase, "Just hook it to my veins!!"

I picked up my physical copy of DK Country Returns HD (along with the cute DK barrel pen holder) so I'm hoping to start digging into that. Been looking forward to it since it was announced. Back in the Wii era the girl I was with at the time loved it, but I never got around to it. Was probably neck deep into COD.

I'll still be playing Snowrunner (Switch) whenever I can. I finally wrapped up the Taymyr map and boy that one was a doozy. So much opportunity to flip so the winch was a lifesaver in many scenarios! I didn't do any of the contests this time because to me they're very "immersion breaking". There's just something about them that bugs me.

I did bite the bullet and buy the Season 9: Renew & Rebuild DLC. I really like the whole wildfire scenario. I seriously promise though I've had my eye on this particular Season 9 back when I was still completing the Alaska map. It had nothing to do with me living in Southern California and actual wildfires are causing a ruckus (I'm nowhere near it but I definitely smelled it in the beginning). It's just a coincidence!

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Atm there is a Flamigo outbreak event with higher shiny rate.

Pokémon GO

Doin Shadow Ho-oh raids today with ambassador group. Hoping for some shinies^^

Shin Megami Tensei V

Got to the 2n last dungeon. Still missing some glory and other items from the other bioms but I do later.
After finishing story I do the rest of the missing stuff in an alternate save file and prepare for NG+.

Echos of Wisdom, Sonic X Shadow Generations, Doom Eternal, Mario Odyssey and Unicorn Overlord.

Microsoft Wordament (Android) - Adventure mode and Dailies as usual.

Gravity Guy (Windows Phone) - Nearly halfway through it now.

Microsoft Minesweeper (Windows Phone) - I'm not very familiar with this franchise, slowly getting the hang of it though.

@Ganner Thanks for the recommendations, I've started playing through Joe & Mac 2 thanks to @Yalloo and am having a blast so far and will start Operation Winback tonight, my N64 gameplay when I was younger was almost exclusively used for GoldenEye and WWF No Mercy haha

@Ristar24 that is so bizarre, I was thinking about Michael Jackson’s MoonWalker this morning and how much I’d love to be able to say I’m playing it some weekend, and here you’ve just picked it up! Hope you enjoy, I had it on the MasterSystem, wasn’t even a fan as such back then, but I definitely enjoyed the game!

Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection. Mainly, working on X-Men: Children of the Atom. I played my cousin's copy on the PS one, but haven't played the Arcade game in ages.

@cosmograph David Lynch worked with Michael Jackson, unfortunately beyond that I’m not familiar with his work, hope you’re feeling better soon.

This weekend I’m playing Starfield, got back into it this fall with the goal of surveying every star system and I’m only a few away from completion. Also playing Infinity Nikki with the mrs, and maybe a little Indiana Jones.
@Ganner I’ve really enjoyed reading about your SnowRunner journey the last few months. I got into it on Switch during early covid days and have since completed the base game on Xbox Series X and PS5 since then. Its become my most played game ever (which is saying a lot), and its the game I always go back to, like a palette cleanser. I just accepted my SR fate last fall by purchasing all the dlc maps and have a lot still to do, but the best part for me in replays has been using mod trucks, like the Azov Kikimore, which is a beast that can go anywhere and do everything. Anyway, thanks for sharing your journey, and happy gaming everyone!

@AerosTactician If you think the 3rd case is boring, then wait for the 5th. I thought I would finish this weekend, but will not, it takes forever.

@AmplifyMJ I did not know he worked with Michael Jackson. Editor Gavin Lane mentioned that he’s going to watch Wild at Heart which is probably one of his most accessible films. There is a rabbit hole for you to go down if you are a fan of avant-garde films. Extremely influential guy. His supernatural detective series Twin Peaks was the inspiration for the Deadly Premonition series.

@Morsel Yeah, I've heard bad things about that one, my main issue with case 3 is the Amanos. I hate Ernest because he just pulled some random evidence out of nowhere, and Lance is just boring as anything.

@JS_Comics Great I hope you like it! Are you using a N64 controller? To me it was like night and day when I finally got the controller. I'm aware there are many that don't like it but maybe it's a generational thing. I was in 7th grade when the N64 released and whenever I use it now the muscle memory instantly returns like no time passed.

@SuprMattio Thanks man! Of all games and genres that exist I'd never think that this game would be such a game I'd sink any time into. After I finished Michigan and Alaska I was supposed to be done. But then I decided to just peak around Taymyr and I was hooked all over again. During Taymyr I kept looking more and more at the Season 9 scenario and here we go again! I didn't want to cheese the game in any way so I'm only using vanilla trucks. I love how you can pretty much play the game and complete whatever however you want. There's just too much to do but once I get "in the zone" the time goes by. The music in the game really adds to the experience I often turn off any YouTube/podcasts stuff I have in the background and just get to work

Well here we go with another interesting WAYP. The week was some new games and some of the GOTY hunt again. Trails Through Daybreak, Emio and Metaphor with some Mario and Luigi and WWE2K24. Started Wuthering Waves too and honestly of all these Gacha games it’s the best not Hoyoverse game of all of them. Most of the weekend was spent with Mario and Luigi Brothership and Wuthering Waves. Mario and Luigi is honestly just a good comfort game and I’m not just saying that. Granted I ain’t played much because I’ve been going in on Trails Through Daybreak like Alana but I feel bad for that because it’s genuinely cute, comforting and fun it reminds of Bowsers Inside Story And with Wuthering Waves like I said it’s a game that honestly may not be the best but like I said outside of the trio of Genshin, Star Rail and Zenless it may genuinely be like 4th place then it’s fun, cute, has awesome characters and a really interesting world. And fantastic combat. Rest of the weekend I’m thinking is gonna be maybe some Marvel Rivals or YS Memoire The Oath in Felghana. Didn’t start that one yet but it’s apparently stellar so I’m excited. Otherwise I’m thinking this week is mostly gonna consist of some Trails Through Daybreak, Emio, Dawntrail, Metaphor, YS, Mario and Luigi Brothership, Super Mario Party Jamboree, Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake and WWE 2K24. Try to start Tales of Graces F Remastered and Donkey Kong Country Returns HD too. Genuinely wanna try to beat Emio too like for real. As a side note the Switch 2 getting announced really makes me wanna go hard in the switch and just destroy that backlog because I’m so excited. GameStop actually didn’t even get a copy of Dynasty Warriors Origins although I preordered it so we’re gonna just wait on that one. Little disappointed I won’t lie but I’m excited to crack into it when they do get a copy. The wrestling thing this week being more of WWE on Netflix. This second week of it was way better with things like the debut of Penta and Lyra Valkyria becoming the inaugural Women’s Intercontinental Champion. Here’s hoping Saturday Nights Main Event and the Royal Rumble as well as the continuing Netflix RAWs keep the good vibes going. Anime of the week gotta go to Dragon Ball Daima and Shangri La Frontier and Yakuza Fiancé and Ron Kaminohashis Forbidden Deductions and My Happy Marraige. Slotted in that last one to replace Ranma for now. Still gotta focus on the picks for Winter still dunno what we’ll do with those. Podcasts of this week gotta go to Castle Superbeast, Big Think Dimension, Into The Aether, RPGsites Tetracast, Minnmax, Jeff Gerstmann, Kit and Krysta, Last Stand Media, Easy Allies, Second Wind, Nextlander, Cultaholic Wrestling, Weapon Wheel Podcast and Remap Radio. As always yall stay safe, be cool to each other. Have a totally amazing weekend and of course Happy Gaming.

@Ganner oh I agree 100%! I started off playing Goldeneye with the Pro Controller and it felt wrong, I got myself the N64 controller and I was transported right back haha. I find it's also encouraging me to play more games on the N64 NSO and that's not a bad thing, been debating whether or not to bite the bullet on the SNES controller now though!

Pikmin 4 baby

I'm going to be playing a little bit of AM2R, Fortnite and maybe Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.